Electrical controller system



Nov. 3, 1931. w. B. CHURCHER I ELECTRICAL CONTROLLER SYSTEM Filed March 29, 926

INVENTOR Ros ATTORNEY.

Patented Nov. 3, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WILLIAM B. CHURCHER, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE WHITE MOTOR COM- PANY, A CORPORATION OF OHIO ELECTRICAL CONTROLLER SYSTEM Application filed March 29, 1926'.

My invention relates to electrical controllers and relates particularly to electrical controllersof a type adapted for use in connection with automotive vehicles, although not 5 limited to such use.

An object of my invention is to provide an improved electrical controller system which may be advantageously employed for the purpose of performing the so-called fdimming function of automotive vehicle headlights.

Another object of my invention is to provide improved apparatus capable of use in a system of the type above mentioned.

Another object of my invention is to provide improved apparatus capable of being employed in such a system, comprising an improved manually operable switch and improved electromagnetic mechanism adapted to be operated under the control of the switch to positively effect desired switching operations, in an electrical circuit.

Another object of my invention is to provide an improved switch adaptable for use in an electrical system capable of being readily retained in either switch-closing or switch-opening position, and releasable therefrom by a single manually contactable element thereof.

Other. objects of my invention and the invention itself will become apparent by reference to the following description of an em bodiment of my invention illustrated in the accompan ing drawings forming a part of this speci "cation, and in which drawings:

Fig. .1. shows an electrical system embodying my invention, certain apparatus portions being shown mostly in section and other portions of the system being shown diagrammatically; and

Fig. 2 shows a plan View of the relay mechanism comprised in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a second embodiment system.

Referring now to the drawings, at 1 and 2, I show a pair of automobile headlight lamps, each having a pair of filaments 3 and 4, and

3 and 4:, respectively, and at 5 I show a substantially cup shaped relay casing having a reduced mouth portion 35 and peripherally threaded at 51 adjacent the reduced Serial No. 98,319.

portion, whereby an inverted cup shaped cover 7, having its interior wall adjacent its mouth screw threaded, may be threaded onto tjsfhe cup 5 to form a dust-proof closure there- Within the cup 5 I place an electromagnet having a winding 6 having a longitudinal bore within which may be disposed a plunger 21 and a helical spring 22 which encircles the plunger. At 8, I provide a disk armature, to each side of which by means of rivets 36 is secured a trifurcated metallic sheet, each fork of which carries an electrical vcontact, the contacts for the upper sheet 13 being shown at 15, 16 and 17 and those for the lower sheet, shown at 14:, being disposed preferably directly below the contacts 15, 16 and 17. The disk armature 8 and the plunger 21 both being made of soft iron or other suitable magnetic material are loosely secured together at the center of the disk and the helical spring 22 encircling the plunger, and preferably made of brass, bronze or other suitable non-magnetic spring material, bears against the bottom of the cup 5 and the center of the contact carrying element 14. The spring 22 will normally press the armature upward to a position wherein its upper movement is restrained by virtue of the contacts 15, 16' and 17 coming into engagement with the ends of the contact screws 18, 19 and 20, which are supported by the inverted cup 7. Each of the contact screws are insulated by bushings 9, 10 and 90 from the inverted cup and are therefore insulated from each other, except that at 52 I have shown an electrical circuit conductor joining the contact screws 19 and 20. At 11 and 12, I show a pair of contact screws secured in the insulating head of the electromagnet 6 and presenting their contact points toward the contacts projecting downwardly from the lower face of the forks of the strip 1 1,

Directly below the contact screw 19 and below the armature 8, I have provided a third contact screw similarly carried by the electromagnetic insulating head but not exposed to view in the drawing, and which is electrically connected by the conductor 53 to the contact screw 12 and adapted to make contact with the third hidden depending armature contact. It will thus be seen that the armature presents three upwardly projecting electrical contact elements arranged in the form of an equilateral triangle, and directly below them has three downwardly projectingelectrical contacts and is provided with a set of three upper and a set of three lower longitudinally adjustable insulated contact screws cooperating with the saidcontacts, whereby, when the armature 8 is moved downwardly by the electromagnetic energization of the magnet 6 and the interconnection between the armature contacts through the strips 13 and 14 and the armature 8, all of the lowermostset of contact screws will be interconnected by the armature, and when the armature is retractedby the spring 2% upon deenergization of the magnet al the upper set of electrical contact screws will be interconnected.

At 55v and 56, Ihave shown a pair of metallic pins carried by the insulating head of the electromagnet and projecting through openings 57 and 58 through the armature 8. These pins and armature openings are provided for the purpose of always insuring that the armature is held non-rotatable with respectto the contacts carried by the head of the electromagnet, such as the contacts 11 and 12, and that the contacts 15, 16 and '17 will always be engaged by the contact screws 18,

"19 and 20 whenever the cover 7 is placed on the-cup-5 in a given rotative position relative thereto to insure that the cover 7 should always be capable of achieving the proper rotative position relative to-the cup 5 to insure alignment-of the screws carried by the cover and the contact elements of the armature. At 55, I provide a notched recessin the peripheral outer surface of the cover 7 and adjacent its edge, adapted to receive an end of a leaf spring 54 secured to the exterior of the cup 5 by rivets 60.

At 23, I show a casing for a switch-mechanism' comprising a plunger and a mounting escutcheon plate 24 having suitable openings therethrough'preferably remote from the easing 23, M61, for securing the switch mechanism to a support such as the dash or steering wheel of an automotive vehicle. The casing and escutcheon plate have aligned openings 62 and 63 and are secured together by rivets 64. The switch mechanism comprises also a set'of switchcontacts 27 adapted to be operatively closed by the insulating roller 26 engaging the end of the bent spring65 ofthe contact set whenever the plunger is moved to its lower operating position as illustrated, the roller 26 being carried by the plunger 25, being rotatably mounted upon a screw 66 passing through the roller and into a lateral side of the plunger 25. The plunger has a squared reduced end 67 projected through an opening 34 in the bottom wall of the casing 23, and a helical compression spring 33 is compressed between the shoulder 68 of the plunger and the casing bottom Wall and is adapted to retract the plunger to an upper position to effect the opening of the contacts 27. The lunger 25 carries an outwardly extending ange 28near its upper endand'is laterally relieved at 69 in a portion spaced from and disposed above the flange. A shoulder is provided by therelief of the plungerantl is brought into spring pressed engagement with the inturned flange 70 of the casing 23 by virtue ofthe spring 33 and a leaf spring 29 riveted at 71 to a lateral wall of the casing and having its free end resiliently pressing'against a lateral side of the plunger to rockthe upper end of the plunger laterally, as illustrated, after the plunger has been depressed'sufiiciently to bring its shoulder 30 below the level of the flange 70. Whenever it is desired to restore the switch to a'position wherein the contacts 27 will be opened, it is only necessary to manually press the insulated handle knob 32 of the switch mechanism laterally in the direction shown b the arrow 73, so that the shoulder 30 wil be tripped out of engagement with the inturned flange of the casing 23, and the portion of the plunger adjacent but above the flange 28 will be projected. upwardly within the aligned 5 openings 62 and 63 of the casing and escutcheon plate. Theplunger flange 28 will then come into engagementwith the under side of the inturned casing flange 7 O-to restrict further upward movement and to retain the plunger in the'casing.

The electrical circuits involvedin theelet'f trical system herein illustrated are verysimple, there being a primary circuit comprising the switch contacts 27, the circuit conductors 0 37, 39 and 44,-the winding of the electromagnet 6, the source of the current 38 and the switch contacts -75,to effect energization of the electromagnet 6 whenever the contact set 27 closes the circuit by virtue of the oper- M0 ator pressingthe'knob 32 downwardly and effecting the lateral rocking movement of the plunger 25 by the spring 29, the switch 75 being previously closed by rotating-the blade 40' by means of the handle 41-about its center 42. The switch may have a second contact 43 engageable by the end of the blade when moved from relay operating position. A seexmdary circuit is also provided, comprising the source of current 38, circuit conductors 44, '46 and 47 and the contacts of the relay mechanism.

WVhen the switch contacts27 are closed, as illustrated, the relay 6 will attract its armature joining the contacts 11, 12 and the similar hidden contact together to efi'ect-a flow of current from the source through the circuit conductors 39, the switch contacts 7 5 and 40, the contact 11, the armature contact car plate 14,1the contact 12 and the hidden com 581 rring tact joined with it by conductor 53, the circuit conductor 47, the filaments 4 and 4 of the lamps 1 and 2, respectively, and which filaments are connected in multiple. This operation will efiect a lighting of the lamps under whatever conditions of brilliancy and light deflection which may obtain by the light ing of the filaments 4 and 4, and this condition will prevail as long as the switch plunger is retained in its position, as illustrated.

The restoring of the switch by the moving of the knob 32 in a direction indicated by the arrow 73 opens the contacts 27, and the armature 8 will be restored to the position illustrated in the drawing, wherein the relay contacts comprising the contact screws 18, 19 and 20 will be interconnected to connect the source of current 38 through the conductor 44 to the conductor 46, and the circuit between the conductor 44 and the conductor 47 will be broken, this change being effective to light the filaments 3 and 3' instead of the filaments 4 and 4 and effects whatver change in brilliancy or light deflection of the headlights which may be effected by the change in lighted filaments.

I preferably employ in the system of my invention, headlights employing a plurality of filaments, each of which when lighted will produce illumination either by different intensity or light differently directed from the lamp, although my invention in its broader aspects is not limited thereto, and I preferably employ that type of lamp wherein one of its filaments is in the focal point of its reflector and the other filament is displaced relative to such focal point and preferably displaced in such a way that the light from the lamp will be directed in a more downward direction than is the case when the other filament is lighted.

At 91, I show a resistance coil which may be inserted in the circuit of the lamp filaments by throwing the switch contacts 92. It is immaterial whether or not the resistance 91 is made so high as to so reduce the winding 6 that the relay will fail to attract its armature, since the effect of the resistance will be to dim the headlights in any event.

However, I preferably provide an electromagnet capable of attracting its armature even when the resistance is in circuit with it. The use of the resistance 91, with the atl tendant functions, may be dispensed with in In this system, both filaments would be lighted when desired to project a bright light straight ahead of the vehicle and would also throw rays of light in a more downward direction for a shorter distance. However, when the relay is operated, the downwardly deflected rays only will be effective.

It will be noted that I have provided an improved electrical system comprising an electromagnetic relay operable under the control of a manually operable switch, and in which it is only necessary that a single wire lead from the switch to the rest of the system; and since the switch will usually be mounted upon the steering wheel of the vehicle, the frame of which is grounded, this possesses a considerable advantage, since it is difiicult, if not impossible, to properly dispose more than a single electrical conductor capable of efficiently conducting currents commonly employed in vehicular headlight circuits. Also, the single wire which I will provide, leading to the manually operable switch, may be much lighter than that which would be required in systems wherein such a conductor were required to carry the lighting current. The relay mechanism also may be placed in an advantageous position relative to the battery and the headlights, so that the lighting current circuit conductors may be made much shorter and disposed much more conveniently in the vehicle than would otherwise be the case, accomplishing also a greater economy in cost of materials and installation. My invention has a special application, as before stated, to vehicular headlight lighting systems and particularly those energizing the filaments, an electromagnetically operable switch, two sets of contacts for the switch, one set being normally closed to close a circuit to the bright filaments and upon energization of the switch adapted to be opened and the other set being adapted to be closed to close a circuit to the dim filaments, a manually operable switch, a main supply conductor from the sourceof supply to said magnetic switch for energizing the winding thereof and supplying current through said contacts to said lamps, ground connections for the lamps, a control wire from the winding of the electromagnetic switch to said manually operable switch, a ground connection for said manually operable switch and a ground connection for said source of supply. 2. In an automotive vehicular headlight system, a pair of head lamps, a bright and a dim filament in each lamp, a source of current supply, an electromagnetic switch, a manually operable switch, a winding for the electromagnetic switch, two sets of contacts therefor, one set being normally closed and the other set normally open and the sets of contacts adapted to be respectively opened and closed upon energization of the winding, a lamp current carrying conductor from the current supply to the electromagnetic switch, internal connections in the switch whereby the current may flow to the winding and to the said contacts, a control .wire from said winding to said manually operable switch, a ground connection for the latter switch, a conductor from said switch contacts to the bright filaments in series and to ground, a conductor from the contacts of said switch to the dim filaments in series and to ground and a ground connection for said source of supply.

In testimony whereof I hereunto afiix my signature this 22nd day of March, 1926. WILLIAM B. CHURCHER. 

